Tag Archives: competition

Solis Ortus is so very proud of you on your achievement of Bronz at the All African Games in Congo. It is an absolute honour to have you as one of our students and to say that we get the opportunity to train with a champion. From me, your seniors, all the students and Solis Ortus as a whole, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! OSS

The sun is rising to mark the start of the SA JKA Nationals 2015. Hope you are all dressed warmly and ready for action. Good luck and have fun!!!

This is the message our Sensei sent the Team early on Friday morning. What a tournament. Solis Ortus did us proud with 49 medals out of 59 competitors. Some of us had a good day and some had a fantastic learning curve.Always remember “never a failure always a lesson”. If you improved in the tournament you have won!

Friday went smoothly, and the coloured belts did extremely well. SO brought home 36 medals! Well done to all the karatekas!

Saturday was another ball game. We did African Cup trials inbetween which resulted in a very long day. The groups were very big per floor and the competion of a very high standard. Many karatekas qualified for the African Cup and SO congratulates everyone who is in the team. Well done!

After a successful tournament we retired very late and with exhausting bodies to yet celebrate a successful SA JKA 2015.

What an amazing AND most scary experience. With the honour of representing our country, Elmien , Heilethe and I entered the Portuguese hall in Johannesburg with mixed emotions. Elmien was the more “relaxed” one as she had done this before, but the same could not be said for the rest of us.

Thursday we spent about 4 hours at the hall for weigh in and team speeches’ by Sensei Ian le Roux. We got to meet our coaches and did roll call.

Friday met us with some nerves as we spent the day supporting our team and seeing the other countries’ karatekas for the first time. Botswana entered with good spirit. Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique were there as well.

All the children, juniors and cadets competed that day and the quality was of an incredibly higher standard than what we are used to seeing on regional’s and provincials…..even nationals. I could not believe the speed that the katas were performed with. Absolutely amazing!

Then Saturday hit us and the butterflies became dragons. Fire breathing, evil, HUGE dragons. As we arrived we were told all veterans (that’s me and Heilethe) were on first. We had hardly time to defrost as we reported to our floors and did our stuff.

As most competitors feel after an event like this, it was with mixed emotions – a feeling one could have done better and a feeling of pride as we know we did our best at the time, and we did something we never thought we would ever do…REPRESENT OUR COUNTRY..and also..REPRESENT OUR CLUB, which is probably the one thing one feels the most proud about.

The standard I saw on that tournament made me even more determined to improve on my karate and also showed me I still have a very long road to go as far as my own standard is concerned. It also showed me that our club can definitely compare to the best in SA as our Sensei definitely knows his karate as he was one of the coaches for the children/cadet and junior team and many turned to him for advice. It made me very proud to tell other karatekas I belong to Solis Ortus, and Sensei Eugene Oosthuizen, a name many recognised, was MY Sensei.

To my first time participants – I am very proud of you for entering the competition and doing your best. I hope to see you at many more tournaments in the future.

The my regular participants – Hope you gained some more experience and knowledge with this challenge. The aim for every competition is not always to win or to place in the medal division, but also to learn. Learn about yourself, your fellow competitors, the competition rules and gain experience.

As you all now, we have started the 2nd quarter of this year with a bang with 3 tournaments behind us already and our fist club grading almost upon us (14 June 2014).

I have taken some time during the various tournaments to observe the students and their behaviour while participating and their reactions to winning and losing. In this regard, I want to ask each and every one of our students and their parents to read the following article, “Winning isn’t everything, but WANTING to win is by Vince Lombardi. Parents, please print this page and read it to your children.

On May 10th, 2014, Solis Ortus hosted its first JKA inter-club championship. Although it was a relatively small competition, it was nonetheless an exciting tournament with many talented karateka doing their thing!

We are proud of all the various divisions, from our junior belts to our senior belts, from the young ones to the older ones. Everybody did their best and demonstrated both good attitudes as well as good spirit.